Took a day off last week and drove to Centre County PA for some early-season trout fishing on Spring Creek. I arrived to a snowstorm Friday morning which worked out great becuase there was no one else on the water. Hooked up within minutes to my first fish of the year - a footlong wild brown.

As the air temperature warmed around noon midges became active and the fish started dimpling the surface everywhere. I must have missed a dozen fish because I could not see the rises through the snow. Frustrating. Finally hooked a couple and moved downstream.

At this point BWOs were coming off sporadically and a small flashback emerger proved to be deadly. Fished in the deeper cuts and seams along eddys, this produced some larger browns which fought and jumped admirably. At the peak of the hatch I switched to a BWO sparkle dun which took 2 fish on top despite my very rusty dry-fly skills.

Sat and Sunday were more of the same despite increased fishing pressure. Sunday AM FishyboyICU812 drove up from MD and we had some good nymph fishing downstream despite the cold temperatures.

Sounds fun. Dryflies in the snow can be the best fishing of the year. We headed to WY over the weekend for our first spring trip. Unfortunately the fish almost never rise where we go. A guide told me it is due to a resident flock of pelicans that slaughter rising fish. I took this fish on a #24 brassie.

I have many fond memories of March fishing on Spring Creek during the 4 years I was an undergrad at Penn State back in the early 70's. Having such a great fishery so close the State College was simply wonderful.